High-Context' nature in function words and their relatives as seen in grammatical samples from the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test Level 1High-Context' nature in function words and their relatives as seen in grammatical samples from the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test Level 1AA11551704日本語能力試験1級‘〈機能語〉の類’を中心とした日本語の表現文型に見る高コンテクスト性松原, 幸子MATSUBARA, Sachiko

This paper examines function words and their relatives (FWs) in the grammatical samples of Level 1 of the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test. Based on their characteristics, many of the FWs are divided into two groups: FWs made by omission, and FWs that have special parts. The latter group is further subdivided into two categories: one in which the special parts are made from basic verbs or function nouns, or words derived from them, and the other, in which special parts are derived from classic Japanese or Chinese. In the first group, FWs made by omission, the omitted parts are those which carry meaning. The FWs in the second group have no special meaning, and just join two parts of a sentence. However, receivers understand not only the explicit meaning, but also the implicit nuances due to ""preprogrammed information that is in the receiver and in the setting"" and the shared cultural context of the communication mentioned by Hall (1976). These FWs exhibit 'high-context' characteristics, and are an example of the 'high-context' nature of the Japanese culture which was presented by Hall (1976).